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James
J'ames' is a red mixed-traffic L&YR Class 28 engine who can sometimes be vain and boastful. All the same, he means well and is a hard worker. He regularly works on the Main Line. Bio in the Television Series According to The Adventure Begins, James arrived on Sodor some time after Gordon, at which time he was painted black. His wooden brakes were prone to catching fire and he had trouble stopping quickly; if anyone noticed a burning smell from his brakes, he would deny smelling anything out of the ordinary. James originally owned Annie and Clarabel and believed The Fat Controller would soon give him his own branch line. James acted as a bully towards Thomas when the tank engine first arrived, but soon after gained some respect for him. They became close friends following James' accident. Some Troublesome Trucks made his wooden brakes catch fire, prompting Thomas to chase after him. James' guard attempted to couple Thomas to the back of the train to slow James down, but as this failed, James could not stop and came off the rails at a bend, scratching his paintwork and destroying most of his trucks. Thomas fetched Jerome and Judy, who lifted James back onto the rails. Thomas then took James to the Steamworks for repairs. When James returned as a splendid red engine, Thomas and Edward did not recognize him. Upon declaring he was ready for his coaches, James realised that his coaches were now Thomas' and the little tank engine now had his own branch line. Like in the original story, after Thomas left the yard to work on his new branch line, Gordon, James and Henry went on strike because they refused to shunt like "common tank engines". So the Fat Controller shut them up in the shed and bought a new engine named Percy to ease the workload. Once the tender engines realized how silly they had acted and were allowed to work again, Percy stayed on as station pilot, which has led to him developing somewhat of a rivalry with James, who often considers the work Percy does to be menial and of lower stature and is often not fond of what Percy does or how he does it. In the third season, James complained about Percy leaving for the harbour because now he has to "do Percy's job." Gordon advised James to pretend to be ill, which he did. Thomas happily took James' trucks for him, but they played tricks on Thomas. James and Gordon sincerely apologized for getting Thomas into trouble, and Thomas forgave them. In Percy, James and the Fruitful Day, James called out Percy for being late, dismissing his "excuse" of the trucks being troublesome and saying that nothing should stop the engines from meeting the Fat Controller's expectations of being punctual. Later, when he pulled a train of fruit, he ended up breaking down, leading to Percy excessively teasing him about it before ending up in a crash of his own. James also teased Percy for finding a scarf (trousers wrapped around his funnel) and left to tell Henry, who actually felt sorry for Percy. Along with Henry and Duck, he also teased Percy for thinking that he’d seen a dragon. James’ work mostly entails something he considers important, and his arrogance comes from his belief of himself as splendid and pride in the jobs he does; if he doesn’t get an important job, he sulks or gets jealous of those who do. This has caused Gordon and sometimes Henry to look down on him. In Time for Trouble, the extra trains being scheduled caused Gordon to become tired so James did his work. This prospect that absolutely delighted James; the narration states that “he liked to show off his smart red paint and was determined to be as fast as Gordon”. James boasted to “little Toby” that he’s an important engine, “Regular as clockwork, never late, always on time!”. Later James complained about being late when he heard the news about a dehydrated Toby stranded on the main line and was not happy that he had to push Toby along. He arrived at “the Works station” later than the express was scheduled to arrive. In The Trouble with Mud, as James got ready to take the express in Gordon’s stead again, he ignored Gordon’s advice about needing help on the slippery hills. Despite knowing that the hill was difficult to climb, James made a run at it. He ended up slipping and sliding back down in front of Gordon. The big engine offered to push behind, and James accepted the help. This event would later make Henry doubt James would pull the Royal Train, despite James believing himself to be the obvious choice. In his next appearance, James was stated to supposedly brighten up everyone’s day. He bragged to Thomas and Percy that he is the most useful engine on the line. Thomas called this rubbish, and Percy called out James on getting all puffed up. Later, he boasted to Gordon that he’s the pride of the line, but because Gordon saw James pulling trucks earlier that day, Gordon said that James is a mere goods engine and doesn’t pull coaches very much. As a trick, James told Thomas that he was supposed to take Gordon’s express, leaving Thomas to give Gordon the trucks. James thought his plan clever, but the Fat Controller sent him to the sheds until he was wanted. Gordon and Henry teased James by asking who will take the express, but when James went back to work, Thomas was glad to see him out and about, and James apologized for tricking him. Thomas kindly gave James his trucks, and James took them to the harbour, working very hard until it was time to go home. In the fourth season, when the three tender engines were feeling overworked, James complained about getting no rest in response to Henry saying that Percy should be fetching their coaches but wasn't there. James and Henry spared with each other, including James telling Henry to "stop worrying and do some work for a change", until Percy revealed that he'd been too busy helping with the circus' arrival and that they should help too. The big engines forget to be cross while helping, but when it's time for the circus to leave, James got to pull their departing train away and left Gordon and Henry to sulk. Despite being called a little engine by Gordon in both James and the Express and Tender Engines (though not to his face in the latter), James, like Gordon, often looks down on engines smaller than he is. Both he and Gordon had no sympathy for Thomas and Percy when the latter two were being hassled by Cranky. James said that they should look at Cranky’s point of view: “high up in the air coping with wind, rain, and baking sun”. Seeing “little engines” being “annoying” is “no wonder” that they’re called bugs. While James generally agrees with Gordon when it comes to smaller engines, such as in this example, he became cross at Gordon’s constant complaining (this was while he was bantering with Percy and Gordon, who once again called him small), considered Gordon breaking down to serve him right for being full of himself, and had no sympathy for Gordon’s fire being unable to light. James’ great and sometimes overblown pride from his work also applies to not extending it to non-rail vehicles. He fully supports engines who need Sodor as a safe haven for steam engines and have had to face the possibility of being scrapped. This is seen when he stood beside the Scottish twins when they were worried about being sent away and when he gave Oliver high praise for his daring escape from scrap. When James learned that Harold was showing a special visitor around the Island instead of any of the engines, he said, “Engines are meant to take visitors around our Island, not that whirlybird thing!”. He had an extreme distaste toward the Horrid Lorries, and considered Cranky’s suggestion that a lorry should do Percy’s work to be “stuff and nonsense”; his previous sympathetic view of Cranky seemingly gone, implied by his initially negative opinion of Harvey as being “just Cranky on wheels!” When Thomas delivered The Hot Air Balloon, James was worried that the balloon will take all their passengers and for what would become of the engines if that happened. When James “saved” the balloon after it fell on him by billowing smoke and causing it to rise, it wasn’t intentional. The Fat Controller explained that while the balloon carries holidaymakers, they'd still need an engine to take them home. This put James in a much better mood, and he started dreaming he can fly like the balloon. Throughout season five, Thomas often tried to reason with James to show more kindness. James being given a new coat of paint boosts his ego, and he bemoans jobs he considers beneath him (pulling trucks) and dirty. He scathingly remarks more than once that the job should be done by Percy (because Percy’s “dirty” and James is “too important”; the first time, he also includes Thomas because he "likes working with trucks", and the second time, he also includes Oliver because he's "not as important as is!"). All the while scoffing at the job that Percy actually is doing – clearing the line of branches and trees that are too close. James was forced to eat his words when he came across an unstable tree “standing” on the line that was about to fall over. Before the tree could fall on him, he was saved by Thomas. James once again complained about his work in front of Thomas when he said that the Fat Controller works the engines harder than ever and during holiday time. Thomas told James to think about others for a change, which James did when he took a sad Mrs. Kyndley on a mystery tour to the fairground, which cheered her up. James told Thomas that he was right about thinking of others. When Harvey first arrived on the Island, James was among the engines who were skeptical of Harvey’s usefulness, but when Harvey rescued Percy and various trucks after an accident at Bulgy’s Bridge, they changed their minds; James said, “Very useful!”. When Percy found himself in the middle with trucks in front and behind, James laughed at him. Percy telling the Fat Controller about ‘Arry and Bert making him a middle engine prompt James to remark that he “could handle those diesels with bent buffers and a busted boiler” so the Fat Controller had James do Percy’s run to the smelters while Percy shunted trucks in the yards. Nonetheless, ‘Arry shunted trucks in front of James (ironically calling him little) to make him a middle engine, and Bert jeered, “Just like Percy!”. James vehemently took offence to this and said, "I am NOT like Percy! I am NOT a middle engine and I'm NOT moving!" and of course, he refused to move. The Fat Controller sent Percy to fetch James, and Percy brought all the trucks plus James to the docks. Percy said that James was learning to be a middle engine, and James tried to conceal himself with steam. Right before a big freeze, an eager James and Percy were given a job that James would later consider top priority: delivering extra coal to the stations. Thomas teased them about running into Jack Frost, but James was dismissive and considered Percy to be silly for being steamed up over Jack Frost. But James got a fright when he saw an ice-bound Percy with spiky icicles on his face, believing it to be Jack Frost. The next morning, James bragged to the other engines about it, but Percy pointed out that James ran away. The engines whistled, including James. Later, when Percy said that getting dirty much more frequently makes washdown more of a necessity for him than Gordon, who only does it to feel important, and Gordon insists that he is important, James said that Percy was being pouty. Also, when Alicia Botti was coming to the Island, James was certain he'd collect her due to being the brightest and the shiniest. Gordon says, "Nonsense, I'm the most important.". Both engines appeared cross when Thomas is chosen instead. When Gordon broke another record, a smug and unimpressed James said that speed isn’t everything, but Gordon retorted that he’ll never understand. Later, when Thomas and Henry were teasing Gordon for being overrun by Thomas and the Jet Engine, James brushed off Percy’s remark that Gordon should not be expected to go as fast as a jet engine by saying, “But he’s still full of hot air!”. However, when Gordon returned from the works after a horrific accident feeling very unhappy with himself, James informed him that Salty was sorry for their earlier argument, and Gordon apologized for being too full of himself. Later, when Gordon called Edward a useless old steampot that should be retired, James agreed with him. He was among the engines who were pleased when they heard Duck would help them while Edward is busy teaching Stepney how to run the new loop line. James was also seen smiling at Knapford as he behold a strange sight: An exhausted Duck pulling trucks with Gordon and the express in the middle and Edward as the banker. James’ pride in his important work and his pride in his paintwork sometimes clash. When James was to collect the mayor, he told a dust-covered Percy to keep his dirt away from him. Later, Gordon presented the chance for “important work”, and James immediately jumped on the opportunity, but was dismayed when he found out that it was taking a leaky old barge to the works. Throughout the journey, James was primarily concerned about staying shiny and clean, especially when oil spilled everywhere, as opposed to the accident that just happened. James took the barge to the Sodor Ironworks without getting dirty, but Percy blew dust on him anyway. In the eighth season, an inspector was to give a prize to the best engine during his inspection, and James thought he'd give it to a red engine. He, along with Emily and Gordon, occupied the washdown area, preventing Thomas and Percy from using it. When the big engines were then all cleaned, they tried to find the sunniest spot in the yard, but James accidentally triggered the coal hopper, causing it to pour out coal and ruining their looks. The prize went to Thomas and Percy, whose hard work had made them dirty, and they had just returned from the washdown. When James got a new coat of paintwork, he considered himself very special due to being splendid and being really useful, but Thomas reminded him that those things are not the same. James’ excessive showing off of his new coat to people and reflections made him very late for work. As a result, he had to take a very long line of coal trucks to the docks. Though initially happy that he was going to a place full of people to show off to, the coal flew everywhere ruining his look. James ended up seeing the funny side. Since then, James has balanced his pride of his paint and pride of his job, but when he gained a job he considered top priority (delivering coal to all the stations), he didn’t wait for water or helping Edward, which eventually lead to James running out of water and Edward being too restrained on time to help. Salty came to help James and told him that no job is more important than helping another engine, which he later remembered when he saw a broken down Diesel and helped him to the fitter’s yard before proceeding with his coal deliveries, which he completed on time. The Fat Controller praised James for that and for learning his lesson. In the ninth season, when James saw the chance for a job he really wanted (pulling the presents train), he aimed to finish his current job as fast as he could so that he could take it. Unfortunately, he was saddled with Edward, whom James was sure he'd be slowed down by. He ignored Edward's advice to slow down and apply his brakes on the icy rails, and he ended up derailing. Once again, Salty came by, and Sir Topham Hatt chastised the two for not taking care, but James owned up that it was his fault for ignoring Edward's advice. James offered to be Edward's back engine, and Sir Topham Hatt agreed as long as James went slowly and took care, which James did. In the tenth season, James thought that he would be the poster engine, but Sir Topham Hatt choose Edward. His friends told him that Edward was chosen because he is gentle with his trucks, doesn't mind doing dirty work, and is always on time. James decided to show that he's good enough to be the poster engine by doing all those things. James did become gentle with the coal trucks, but he found out that Edward already delivered all his coal so James worked as hard as he can to deliver his dirty coal trucks, bragging to Henry that he can get just as dirty as Edward -- before getting a long washdown that made him late. To make up for lost time and get to his passengers before Edward, James raced along the main line. He ended up cutting in front of Edward, and the two ended up crashing. Edward apologized for the crash, but James admitted that it was his fault. The accident caused Edward to be damaged and so once again, he offered to be Edward's back engine so that the children could still go to the seaside with the poster engine. In the eleventh season, after returning from the works, James hoped he'd get an important job so he immediately volunteered to take the mayor to the Festival of Light at the Scottish Castle. James was excited to be the star of the show. Emily asked James if he could help her, Thomas and Percy with their jobs so that they could see the festival, but James said he couldn't as he considered it more important that he looked smart for his job. James refused to help Percy with his quarry work while getting a washdown, Thomas with his coal trucks while getting polished, and Emily with her heavy fish train while getting his funnel swept. James had special flags fitted and passed by the Scottish Castle, where he found no engines. Realizing that they were going to miss the festival, James set off to help so that they could see him being the star of the show, but he ended up helping them despite being covered in coal dust, quarry dust, and fish. His decorations end up being damaged as well. When he arrived at the castle with the mayor, the Fat Controller called James a very hard working and really useful engine for helping his friends and safely delivering his important passenger. James has had several mishaps, most of them caused by his pride of his paintwork. While using Toad as a brake van on a mainline goods train, he refused to slow down. When a coupling snapped, his train rolled down Gordon's Hill uncontrollably. Toad was able to stop the train before colliding with Thomas, who was pulling a special train with Sir Topham Hatt and his mother. Another incident occurred during a flood in the winter, when James and Rocky inadvertently knocked down a signal. When they stopped to rescue Duck from a flooded track, Oliver was unaware that the track was occupied. He saw them at the last minute, but it was too late to avoid a collision. Immediately afterwards, Percy came around the bend and ran into Oliver. James owned up to Sir Topham Hatt, admitting he should have waited for Rocky to be secured properly before leaving. In Tale of the Brave, James teased Percy for being afraid of monsters. One night, he got asked to pull The Flying Kipper since Henry was on the mainland. While pulling the train, he heard a voice saying hello to him. It was Gator, but James couldn't see his face in the dark. James got scared by his unusual shape and raced away. As he raced out, he end up derailing at The Fenland Track. The other engines teased him about his accident, so James decided to play a trick on Percy so he would be teased instead. That night, when Percy was taking the mail, James used the Scrap Monster to scare Percy. The next day, he tried to apologise to Percy, but Percy thought James did not listen to him as he thought James was just coming to tease him again. The two engines later met at the Clay Pits and James decided to show Percy how brave he could be. He puffed into the pits looking for the monster, not noticing his whistle was shaking the cliffs. He saw a dinosaur skeleton sticking out of the cliff wall and raced backwards as fast as he could. But his whistling had started a landslide, so Percy pushed him forward and they raced to safety. Once Percy had been repaired, James apologised for teasing him. In Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, James teased Thomas for not waking up after having raced against Bertie and Henry for thinking he saw a ghostly sailboat before Salty told him, along with Edward and Henry, about a "lost pirate". In the nineteenth season, he and Gordon had heard about "Geoffrey". Later, James and Thomas were to work together to take football fans to and from Dryaw. However, the two ended up causing trouble because they were trying to see whether reds or blues were the best. James later came off the rails near a stone bridge and Philip rescued him by positioning himself underneath James. In the twentieth season, he became so conceited that his coaches were taken away. This put him in such a bad mood that he was left in the sheds until he was given a second chance. But his job of carrying waste trucks returned him into his grumpy mood. After being reprimanded, he changed his attitude, but it was not too long until he returned back to his old self again. Later, James was very excited to take the Fat Controller and the Mayor to Callan Castle for a special night. He was first doing his jobs all day long which turned out to be dusty, sticky and dirty. He then went to the Washdown and noticed a tiny scratch on his paintwork, so James went to the Steamworks to be repainted. However, James quickly left without letting his paint dry in time and when he made his way to pick up the Fat Controller and the Mayor, leaves stuck all over him. Embarrassed, James told Edward to take the Fat Controller and the Mayor to Callan Castle. The Fat Controller explained that James should have ignored the scratch to finish his special job whilst Edward vouched for James that he was working hard all day. James returned to the Steamworks to be repainted again and to let it dry. The Mayor told James he could take him to Vicarstown that night, to which James was very proud to do. In The Great Race, James was one of the engines who laughed at Thomas for thinking the latter would be taken to The Great Railway Show. James would later be part of the show, competing in the Best Decorated Engine Parade alongside Emily, Carlos, Yong Bao and Rajiv. He and Emily lost to Rajiv, though he vainly assumed he was the winner at first. In "Journey Beyond Sodor", James is sent to the Mainland to look for Thomas, only to get himself trapped at the Steelworks. Persona James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He hates pulling trucks and believes that he should only pull coaches. He thinks himself superior to the others and can be shallow, boastful, naughty and vain, particularly to those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow, or dirty. This has caused him to have somewhat of a rivalry with Percy, Toby and Duck. However, on a number of occasions, he has found himself in need of help from those whom he has insulted and is, in the end, apologetic. Even before he was repainted red he was rather boastful. James was the last engine to retain a prejudice against diesels. However, after stalling on a cold day, he was rescued by the Works Diesel and James had to admit that nothing was wrong with diesels. This appears to be one of the few lessons that has stuck. Since Season 17, James has also been portrayed as a prankster, often tricking or scaring the other engines for fun, or to get out of something he dislikes. Following a particularly mean-spirited prank he played on Percy in Tale of the Brave, this gimmick seems to have died down. Despite everything else, James has shown a caring side, is normally hard-working and like everybody else, wants to be a responsible, reliable and really useful engine on Sir Topham Hatt's railway. Livery James was originally painted in L&YR's mixed traffic black with red lining before his accident and was given his red coat with yellow stripes and black lining to cheer him up. Sometime during the 1960s, James' black lining was repainted blue and gold. James has the number "5" painted in bright yellow with a blue border on his tender sides. Throughout the Railway Series, the illustrators would make his cab roof either red or black. Clive Spong, however, has always made James' cab roof red. In the television series, James has always been painted in the North Western Railway's red livery with gold stripes and black lining, with three exceptions: in the tenth season episode The Green Controller, when he was painted yellow and black, like a bumblebee, on Percy's orders. Then, in the thirteenth season episode, Tickled Pink, James was painted in a pink undercoat. Though he was painted red in his official debut episode, he was painted in his black livery from the Railway Series in The Adventure Begins and had lining on the back of his tender. This disappeared when he was given his red livery. In The Great Race, golden linings and certain flowers were added to him for the best decorated engine parade. In the Railway Series, he carries two builder's plates on the sides of his cab. In the magazine story, An Important Visitor, he was briefly incorrectly painted blue. On occasion, Sir Topham Hatt has threatened to repaint James blue due to him misbehaving. Trivia * James is also Rarity's boyfriend which makes him Spike's love rival due to his crush on Rarity. * James also share with Sarah's twin brother the same name in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventure Team. * James also understands Sweetie Belle's problems which shows that he didn't always agree with Rarity. * Gallery Category:Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures Team Category:The Steam Team Category:Steam Locomotives Category:Tender Engines Category:Standard gauge engines Category:Non-Disney heroes Category:Thomas & Friends Characters Category:Thomas & Friends Characters (RWS) Category:Trains Category:Selfish characters Category:False Antagonist Category:Rarity's Family Category:Singing characters Category:Husbands Category:Fathers Category:Males Category:Boyfriends Category:In-Love Characters Category:Honored Guests to Canterlot